December 17, 2006
Because I had time to read newspapers
Zoe Heller on the film adaptation of Notes on a Scandal. Oprah brings up Heller’s favourite books (via Maud Newton). From around the world, the best fiction of 06. Fannie Flagg, whose writing has always delighted me, has a new book out. On translating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Guardian Books Blog continues to bud. I loved Heather Mallick’s Triumph of the Eggheads. And Joan Didion’s collected nonfiction reviewed in the Globe.
December 7, 2006
A Wonderful Story
“The Third and Final Continent” by Jhumpa Lahiri is the best short story I’ve ever read, and has been endorsed by the likes of Rebecca Rosenblum and my husband Stuart. And I’ve just found a copy of it online. For some absolute reading pleasure, I direct you here. And you absolutely won’t be sorry.
November 23, 2006
Fun at the Guardians Books Blog, and elsewhere.
My favourite blog Maud Newton has had a makeover! Fun stuff at the GBB- is it wrong to throw old books away? I now make a point of pruning my shelves twice a year, and any books I don’t love go to the Vic Book Sale or to someone I know who just might love it. In spite of this editing of my collection, the collection continues to grow but at a rate that is partially manageable (ie we only needed to get one new bookcase last year). On how to sell a book by its cover, namely call it after a penguin.? On favouritizing books, and oh I wouldn’t know where to start. On poetry reading misgivings. Lionel Shriver comments. Honours for Bookstart, which is the organization in the world I most want to work for.
November 23, 2006
Dreams are boring but…
last night I had a bookish nightmare! I dreamt that I somehow ended up with a copy of this rather controversial book, and didn’t know what to do with it. I didn’t want to give it away as then people would know I owned it, I didn’t want to sell it as that would be unethical, I couldn’t just throw it out because I didn’t want to be responsible for that filth in the world, and I couldn’t have kept it because then I would have been turned into a pillar of salt. Dilemma was solved by the alarm clock, I think.
Now reading Tristram Shandy, which I am enjoying actually, but I think it’s gonna be a long long time.
November 11, 2006
Lately
What I’ve learned lately includes Noel Gallagher, such a rockstar! Here for Hilary Mantel on Alice Munro’s new one. Though it’s quite last week, Philip Marchand thinks Toronto has no stories, or novels at least. And this wonderful obit of Alexander Graham Bell’s granddaughter, from last week’s Globe. Most significantly, and disturbingly, after four years together, my husband and I have only just learned that we know different versions of “I’m A Little Teapot”.
November 10, 2006
The Great (fill in the blank) Novel
A novel is not just a novel, but rather the product of a nation. I’m no scholar, and I realize this idea is by no means original, but it fascinates me. After living abroad for three years, I lost the ability to read Canadian fiction, even though it was my home and native book. I couldn’t touch the stuff. I’d been reading nothing but British fiction for ages, and the CanLit seemed to miss the point of what I’d come to think a novel was supposed to do. I was missing the wit, the erudition. There were too many spirits in the trees. Etc. And even though I’ve got back into the CanLit groove, BritFic is still where I’m most at home. I require a dictionary by my side to read British fiction properly, and I’ve always got a stack of new words learned once I’m done.
I don’t read much American fiction, however. Not contemporary stuff at least, but when I do read it, the words I end up looking up always have to do with literary theory and are never quite as interesting to learn as the British words. So now I’m reading The Emperor’s Children, which I knew was American from the second I saw its size. I’m enjoying it, but it fits me awkwardly. Not just because it’s heavy. I think I’ll like it in the end, but I have to shift my brain around to make it work.
Novels from Australia or New Zealand read quite Britishly to me, but then turn out to be hung from their toes in certain places. You think you’re in London and then a wallaby darts across the road. It’s unnerving. And I struggle with novels in translation, as I think each writer approaches their work with their own culture’s understanding of what a novel is, and when I pick up that novel, I’m looking for something different. Japanese fiction absolutely mystifies me. Orhan Pamuk didn’t thrill me. Part of this is because I’m not that clever, and I read novels a bit cheaply. I find a novel is not really a novel unless its a novel to me.
November 9, 2006
Book Spine P*rn
The Guardian Books Blog asks how do you organize your library? Mine is alphabetical, by author’s last name with no consideration to genre, save for my children’s books which have their own little shelf. And A begins at the bottom of my shelf, to make it less clear that my books are alphabetical and that I am obsessive compulsive regarding my library is not so immediately apparent. I like the patchwork that develops from alphabetical cataloguing, different sizes and colours blending together, and I could just stare at the spines. Actually, often I do. Rows of books might be one my favourite sights to see. Awhile back the Calhoun Tribune displayed photos of her library, and by the way I gazed at them, you woulda thought they were p*rn. Oh, book spine p*rn. Orange penguins are my favourites.
Life continues dully, as I spend whole days at my desk. I did, however, bake a loaf of whole wheat bread today and it was absolutely delicious. Monkey Beach was wonderful. Now rereading The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery, because I remember once reading that it was uncannily similar to Lady Oracle (recently read). And next up: The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud.
November 8, 2006
Ephemeron
I learned the word “ephemeron” today (plural “ephemera”), which I had assumed was a noun applied to something ephemeral, and though that is the case, it can specifically pertain to printed matter “of passing interest” like brochures and pamphlets. At our library, however, where I learned this word, ephemera are not so ephemeral as we’ve got them catalogued in our permanent collections. Which is sort of strange. Also important to note, ephemera are a kind of short-lived mayfly. Oh, the things that occupy my mind.
November 8, 2006
List Mongering
Now reading Monkey Beach, which I am just starting to get into. I also took Tristram Shandy out of the library, as I’ve never read it and from all accounts this has been a grave error on my part. I am going to try to read more classics, as I’m quite deficient in that department. I used the spreadsheet from this site to find out how many of the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die I’ve read. 116 in case you wondered. My total would be shorter if the list was called 1001 Books You Didn’t Have to Read for Your BA, or 1001 Books You Read When You Didn’t Have Amnesia (hello The Body Artist by Don DeLillo which was bought and read at an airport in 2002 but disappeared into that black hole that was my life then). Lists are lame, but I like them. And what I’ve learned from this one is that I’ve got gaps to fill, and so classics it is. (thanks to this site for the link to the spreadsheet.)
